ulta pulta
Ethics in lobby
Jaspal Bhatti

Let’s make the corporate lobbying official and open. A lobbyist will declare for which company he or she is lobbying and which are MPs or MLAs are listed on the company list. In fact, when a candidate announces his candidature during the elections in the media, they should be allowed to tag their sponsor’s name along with. "Vote and support your own candidate! Sponsored by Tata, or Reliance or the Aditiya Birla group." After winning the elections, if a parliamentarian doesn’t tow his sponsor’s line and starts talking about the welfare of the voters and all such crap then it should be declared unethical.

If a lobbyist is raising funds for a politician, or another lobbyist (who, let’s say, is working for Tata) is trying to remind his own MPs to support a decision, I don’t think there’s anything unethical in it in today’s context. But if Tata’s lobbyist tries to influence the MPs, who had been sponsored by the Reliance or the Airtel to sit in Parliament, then again the question of unethical practices arises. Even then their phones should be tapped and tapes be leaked rather released officially.

A journalist was being introduced at a dinner party. The host said to a guest, "Meet this gentleman, a well-known journalist, master of his craft." The guest asked the journalist, "Sir, which company are you lobbying for?"

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